Acronis Migrate Easy

About the Download.com Installer

The Download.com Installer securely delivers software from Download.com's servers to your computer. During this process, the Download.com Installer may offer other free applications provided by our partners. All offers are optional: You are not required to install any additional applications to receive the software you selected.
Learn more

Quick Specs

Publisher's Description

+

From Acronis:
So finally you got your hard disk drive the way you like it. Unfortunately, it's now full and you have to upgrade to a new hard disk. You think you are facing a large re-installation project spanning several days of tedious work. Lucky for you, there is Acronis MigrateEasy 7.0, that migrates all your computer data, operating systems, programs, documents, address books, mail, settings and preferences in minutes automatically--just the way you had them.

With this software, I was able to migrate a 80 Gb Hitachi laptop hard drive to a new 500 Gb WD hard drive (during the process it was docked in a StarTech.com SATA Hard Drive HDD Duplicator Dock). It basically cloned the entire hard drive and formatted the rest of the new hard drive so I can now make use of the 400+ Gb available space. Follow the instructions carefully and 2 hours later, you will have a new hard drive that it is ready to be enjoyed.

This program is very easy to use, even for a non-techie newbie like me. I think it was well laid out & written, and couldn't of been more self explanatory then it already is. Thanks Acronis for such a simple & easy to use program, I give you 2 Army "WOOAH's"!!

If this non-techie newbie can do it, then you can do it too - as I just cloned my 1st HD - YEAH!! Even though this program is some 10 years old already and has had no updates to it, I feel that this program is worth it's weight in hard drives - LOL!! I used it to up an old factory installed 2004 80GB WD HD to a new 2012 500GB WD Blue HD, and it took less then 40 minutes to do so. Great product, Easy to use, Quick and Painless, even for a caveman like me - THANKS ACRONIS for Migrate Easy 7.0!!!!

MUST use the utility from a Bootable CD (created through the program) in Windows 7.

Summary

After purchasing/downloading Easy Migrate 7, I did my research (I know, I know - cart before horse). I found that the latest version didn't play completely well with Windows 7. On an Acronis support forum, I learned that Windows 7 cloning required the use of a boot CD and cloning from the it. I believe this has something to do with the additional 100+/- MB partition that 7 uses when booting the OS.

Anyway, the cloning process took about 2 hours, after which I moved the new 1TB SATA drive from SATA 2 to SATA 0 connections and - voila! - Windows 7 booted and started normally.

I did have to download and utilize a free partition manager from EASUS to extend the C partition to utilize a great deal of space still unallocated, but that was an intuitive, too.

All in all, cloning and replacing my hard drive was a simple and straightforward process.

Best program ever. I had an old computer with xp and a 10 gig HD. I used a USB hard drive enclosure and this program to transfer everything to a 160 gig HD. It took a couple hours but it worked flawlessly. Would recommend it to anyone.

Cons

The only con was that the old drive was FAT32, so now I have a 160 gig FAT32 drive, but I have heard that xp can change it to a NTFS file system. It works great though, I shouldn't complain.

Summary

It is very simple if you use an enclosure. I have not tried using a disk but after reading some of the reviews I think I will stick with the enclosure. Awesome product though. Thanks Acronis!

Looks good, but contrary to what others have written the trial doesn't work.

Cons

Takes you through the steps to migrate to the new disk and you think everything is going fine. But at the last step it tells you you can't 'commit' your changes to the new disk as you are running the trial version. A waste of time and of a blank CD!

Did the 15 day trial version. Went from 60 gig to 320 gig with just a few mouse clicks. I had no idea it could be so easy to install a new hard drive and transfer "ALL" the programs, settings, files and XP OS from the old HD to the new.

Cons

My only complaint is that I didn't know about this product years ago.

Summary

I had some initial concerns that the trial version might not be fully functional but I have not found anything missing and everything is working as well it did before. The few mouse clicks to start the process only took a couple minutes of my time. After those initial menu choices Acronis took over and did everything it had to do. Acronis Migrate Easy did take almost 2 hours to do its thing but that's by far a whole lot quicker than it would have taken to reinstall all the programs and applications and I didn't have to sit there and babysit the process. Nor did I have to deal with any activation keys or registrations.The 2 hrs seems longer than what most of the other reviewers have claimed but I think it took longer because I don't have hi-speed USB 2.0.
I'm 63, don't speak geek and this is absolutely the best free download I've ever used.

you can do it with this software very easily but you must do the following:before you begin cloning, in an elevated command prompt (start, cmd, right-click, run as administrator) type each line followed by enter:Bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot <enter>Bcdedit /set {default} device boot <enter>Bcdedit /set {default} osdevice boot <enter>Bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot <enter>

this will ensure your clone will boot despite the changes in your new hard-drive's geometry. You shouldn't have to re-activate if you do this. taken from here: http://www.vistax64.com/vista-general/131523-clone-vista-onto-new-larger-drive-2.html

If you don't do this you will have to boot from the OS cd and repair, and after that I'm not certain how long it will last. you will also have to re-activate.

also DON'T BOOT FROM YOUR OLD DRIVE AFTER THE CLONE IS FINISHED. just replace and go. i 'think' if you boot from your original drive with the clone connected it can mess up your activation. you can't connect two drives with the exact same drive signature to your computer, vista will change the signature of one of them in order to function.

finally, if you want to clone your C: drive to a larger partition, i strongly recommend first cloning to a partition exactly the same size and upon completion using vista's disk manager to very, very easily and quickly increase the partition size (right-click computer, click manage, select disk management).

I don't know which of these steps was messing up my first two attempts, or whether it was all of them, but save yourself a headache and do them all just to be sure.

one more thing: don't forget to run a chkdsk /b on each partition after the new drive is installed (run cmd as administrator and type "chkdsk C: /b" without quotes, replacing drive letter as appropriate). this will reset the bad clusters list and check for new bad sectors. very important - if your old drive has bad sectors the new drive will think it has bad sectors too.

Updated on May 9, 2010

EDIT: just want to add that the first time i tried to clone with migrate easy everything 'seemed' to be fine. after running for a day or more i got a BSOD upon attempting a restart after uninstalling a program. it was then impossible to boot, even with the OS dvd. the second clone i uninstalled a different program and the exact same thing happened. so if you have cloned your disk without following the steps i outlined be aware of this.

oh, yeah, the last thing is you will need to use a partition managing software( i used partition wizard) to reassign drive letters to your D and E partitions. they won't show up in 'computer' until you do. it will look like your brand new big hard drive has shrank to just a small C: partition.

-bootcd doesn't work, new ISO-image only available in paid version
-migrate process needs a reboot, after rebooting nothing happens to proceed the process
-removing the program damaged the Vista bootprocess for which a needed a backup to recover!!!

Summary

If this demo should lead to a purchase?! Better think again and don't hazard your computer and yourself for the stress of all misery you encounter.

E-mail This Review

Thank You, !

Report Offensive Content

If you believe this comment is offensive or violates the CNET's Site Terms of Use, you can report it below (this will not automatically remove the comment). Once reported, our staff will be notified and the comment will be reviewed.